Bones ID'd 32 years later

By Hal Lockard

The Capital-Journal

HORTON -- The investigation into the disappearance 32 years ago of a Kansas woman will move six feet closer to a conclusion Sunday when Louella Janice "Ludy" Monroe is buried in the Dance Ground Cemetery west of Mayetta.

Monroe's remains were found about five years ago near mile post 5 along K-20 highway, south of the Kickapoo reservation and west of Horton, by a construction crew digging a trench for a sewer line.

Lamar Shoemaker, Brown County sheriff, recalling the day the skeletal remains were found, said, "After they realized they were human bones, we were called immediately, of course."

He said Wednesday that stories had circulated for a number of years about what had happened to Monroe. She hadn't been seen since 1973.

"She never was officially reported as missing," Shoemaker said. "We contacted the Indian management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the FBI, the sheriff's office and every place else we could think of."

He said a suspect in her disappearance, who is now deceased, said Monroe, 30 at the time of her disappearance, had left the state to visit relatives.

Kyle Smith, deputy director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, said Wednesday the KBI was still investigating her death.

"It's still active according to my files," he said.

He said Monroe was identified through mitochondrial DNA testing conducted by the FBI. He explained that sort of DNA testing was done at the cellular level and was the only option because the bones were all they had to work with.

A positive match was made either through her parents, children or siblings, he said.

"I haven't been able to contact the agent involved in that case yet," he said.

Monroe was the daughter of George James and Agnes Claybear Allen and the sister of Delila Shopteese and George Allen Jr., all of whom are now deceased.

Shoemaker said one of the odd things about the case was that because of the clothing people wore in the '70s, the polyester shirt found on the skeleton "could have been washed, sewn back together and worn. You could still see the stripes.

"Thirty years underground and still good. I guess that's why the landfills are filling up."

Monroe was born Jan. 31, 1943, in Topeka. She was a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and the Kickapoo Tribe.

A supper in her honor will be held Saturday at the Kickapoo Community Building west of Horton. Wayne Leiker, of the Chapel Oaks Funeral Home in Holton, built a wood casket about 30 inches long to hold her bones for the burial. He said the box should conform to the Potawatomi custom for burial.